The present invention relates to electronic medical records and, in particular, to a system and method for improving a personal health record enrollment process using electronic medical records stored on removable media.
Personal health record (PHR) websites allow a patient to record patient-sourced health data and provide general health-related information. A patient may use a PHR site, for example, to keep a healthcare diary, record medications, track information such as weight or blood pressure, etc. These personal health record sites serve a valuable purpose in creating and preserving patient-sourced data. Personal health record websites are typically stand alone systems containing records uploaded by a user. However, a personal health record may be provided within a portal associated with a hospital or other care facility containing records maintained by healthcare professionals.
These sites may also provide continuity in a patient's medical information recordkeeping when healthcare providers are changed or multiple healthcare providers are used. Some personal health record sites allow data to be uploaded, transferred, and/or copied from electronic portals of healthcare institutions. Documents may be stored using a common format, such as the Cross-Enterprise Document Media Interchange (XDM), which provide document interchange using common file and directory structure over several standard media. This permits a user to use physical media to carry medical documents. Although these sites allow a patient to receive and carry localized data, the data contained therein may quickly become outdated and this provide users with the ability to view or download those records.
Other personal health record sites are provided as an integral part of the medical record system of the healthcare institution, acting as a portal to the information contained in that system. This inclusion of the medical record system data means that the PHR site may serve as a localized health record repository for the patient. One example of such a system is the MyChart PHR system provided by the Epic Systems Corporation of Verona, Wis. and described in United States Patent Application 20030208381 filed Mar. 29, 2001 and entitled: Patient Health Record Access System, incorporated herein by reference.
When a patient chooses to upload his medical information to either an unconnected-PHR or a portal PHR that is not affiliated with the organization or entity that authored the medical information, the process greatly facilitated by emerging standards for electronic medical records which define standard formats for such data. Standardized formats allow the data to be readily integrated into the familiar environment of the PHR. Generally, such standards are designed to promote continuity in a patient's healthcare records as the patient moves among healthcare providers over the course of his or her life. Ideally, a universal standard or set of translatable standards allows patients to easily transfer their electronic medical files to a new healthcare provider, for example over the Internet, as the patients change healthcare providers.
Current standards for electronic medical records anticipate that some data transfers will employ removable storage media such as optical disks or flash memory drives (thumb drives) receiving downloaded electronic medical records that are then physically transported by the patient. The downloaded files, formatted for storage on such media, may include a human readable index file to assist the end user in identifying the files and uploading them to an electronic medical record system at a receiving institution. This index file can be formatted, for example in HTML, for viewing on a standard browser.